Typical Pose of Husband
On our recent visit to the St Kilda Mangrove Boardwalk on Saturday my wife took a sneaky photo of me in action.
The camera bag hanging around my neck proved to be a smart move. Half way through our walk the batteries needed replacement. After a sad experience in Sydney earlier in the year I have tried to always carry fresh, fully charged batteries with me.
On Saturday we had some business to attend to in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. After the business was dealt with we travelled the short distance to St Kilda. We had been intending to visit this area for many years and we were pleased to finally get there.
St Kilda Mangrove walk
After lunch in the picnic ground near the excellent Adventure Playground we went on the Mangrove Boardwalk. This boardwalk was established nearly 20 years ago, so our visit was well and truly overdue.
Mangrove boardwalk St Kilda
The Interpretive Centre is an excellent resource for visitors to the area. Leaving the centre one is immediately in the mangrove forest. This area, along with the nearby Barker Inlet tidal flats, is an excellent birding area. Over 200 species have been recorded here but I only managed about 30 in the short time there.
In the mangroves I recorded several Willie Wagtails, several very vocal whistlers, probably Rufous Whistlers, Spotted Turtle Doves, Grey Fantails and one Grey Butcherbird was heard but not seen. Near the visitor centre I saw and heard many Fairy-Wrens, but none of them were coloured males. They were most likely to have been Superb Blue Wrens, though I checked them out carefully because the beautiful White-Winged Wren has been recorded near here, a species more common much further north.
Barker Inlet, St Kilda, near Adelaide
On several occasions the boardwalk gives excellent views over the tidal flats of Barker Inlet. This is where the birding gets interesting. There seemed to be many hundreds of birds feeding or resting in the shallow water. Grey Teal were the most common bird present. Also present were Royal Spoonbills, White Ibis, Australian Pelicans, Great Egrets, Chestnut Breasted Shelducks, White-faced Herons, Black Swans and Sooty Oystercatchers. Far out over the deeper water I think I saw some Whiskered Terns.
This may have been our first visit to this area; it will not be our last.
Related articles:
Today marks one year since this birding blog started.
Originally it was written on Blogger but my son transferred all the posts to this domain name in March 2006.
Here is the link to my very first post: My First Blog Entry
Wow – what a gripping title!
And one that’s never been used before.
So – Happy birthday to me… er… Happy Birthday Dear Blog.
Hint # 18 Read books about birding and birders
Some years ago I bought and read Bill Oddie’s “Little Black Bird Book.†Apart from being a very humorous look at birders and bird watching as a hobby, this book is full of information about Bill’s experiences as a birder and how to go about the hobby. He gives far more information than I have given in this series of posts. I’m not sure if his book is still in print but it’s worth pursuing in second-hand bookshops or on eBay.
Apart from that wonderful book there are many hundreds more interesting books about birders and ornithologists that are entertaining as well as educational. Recently I read Sean Dooley’s book “The Big Twitchâ€Â. Again this is very humorous and instructive. Sean set aside a whole year recently to go birding. He attempted to beat the all-time unofficial record number of Australian bird species seen in a calendar year. The various sub-plots, including his frustrating love-life, just add spice to the entertainment.
Second hand bookshops and their remainder tables are worth going over as are bookshop sales with discounted volumes. I have made a deliberate choice NOT to access eBay too often lest I be tempted to buy still more bird books to add to the growing pile waiting to be read. It is getting to the point where I need several more bookshelves to house all these wonderful books. Perhaps an extra room could be built on my house; yes, I’ve always secretly wanted a library. Make that two extra rooms; my wife has also wanted a library.
Books I found useful:
The following is a short list of books I found useful when I was learning about birds. The first three may well be out of print. Sean’s popular book is still in print.
Noisy Miner
I and the Bird is a birding carnival. I have read a number of them in recent months but the current one is the first time I have contributed a post.
I and the Bird #31 can be found over at Migrateblog.
Coincidently, my first contribution to the Festival of Trees has also been published recently over at Burning Silo.
Lots of blogs to read and interesting things to see in the photos.
Links:
Access I and the Bird here.
Access the Festival of the Trees here.
Update: I have had to delete all the links on this post as some of them were broken. Sorry about that. (Nov 2013)